They hadn’t made it out of the subdivision before her cell phone rang. Quinn, she figured. Her friend should be about done with her short list of assignments; she had others that had to wait until this evening. She was probably calling to check in.
“More than Pup-” Brenna broke off, realizing that a phone was still ringing.
Adam had simultaneously realized the same thing. “Hello? Geoff, I don’t…Slow down. Maggie’s giving what to who?”
Gripped by a sense of foreboding, Brenna diverted her attention from the road to Adam’s profile. He’d gone ashen.
“We’ll be right there.” He snapped the phone closed. “We need to get to the festival. Now. Morgan’s missing.”
THOUGH BRENNA had turned around immediately, she’d been heading in the opposite direction of the festival. It would take them at least fifteen minutes to get there, and she’d been hoping with every fiber of her body that Maggie would have called by the time they arrived to let them know the little girl had been discovered safe and sound.
But that was not the case.
The festival was sprawled over the entire area of Mistletoe’s quaint downtown. There was not one main entry point. You simply parked in a field or lot as close as you could get, then walked from there. Maggie had been with the kids on the parade route while Fred had gone to buy them cold beverages-the temperature had already been well into the nineties by the time the parade started.
According to Geoff, one minute Morgan had been standing with them among the throng on the sidewalk, the next she’d been gone. In the dense crowd it had been difficult to spot someone so small. As soon as they’d realized what had happened, Maggie had given the little girl’s description to nearby police officers while Geoff called his dad.
Adam hadn’t said anything the entire ride, and Brenna couldn’t think of what to say to him other than a firm “We’ll find her.” He’d nodded tersely, his jaw clenched.
When River had been a kitten, she’d slid out the door without Brenna noticing and hadn’t come home for nearly two days. Brenna had been beside herself with worry. And that was a
Brenna stopped the car, and Adam was out the door before she’d even put it in Park. She saw him dial his phone, heard him ask Geoff, “Anything?” and watched his shoulders sag in defeat.
There was no central PA system for the festival, but several venues used microphones, such as the local bands performing in the oversize gazebo and the sports announcers covering the turtle races. According to Geoff, Fred was systematically going to each of those places to seek people’s help and to ask that anyone seeing Morgan call his cell phone number. Meanwhile, Maggie and Eliza were thoroughly checking all the women’s restrooms in case Morgan had wandered off simply because she needed to go to the bathroom. They were all keeping contact via phone and had left Geoff standing on the sidewalk along the parade route-the last thing they wanted was for Morgan to return only to find everyone else gone.
Geoff described his location to his dad, and Adam turned away from the phone for a moment to ask Brenna, “You know where Christy’s Crafts Corner is?” At her nod, he told his son, “Stay put, we’re coming to you.”
Mistletoe hosted many seasonal events, from the community haunted house every fall to the Winter Wonderland dance that benefited the seniors center. Brenna had always loved these activities, enjoyed the buzzing energy of the crowd, running into dozens of familiar acquaintances. Today, however, the sheer number of people became oppressive and sinister; what would this crush seem like to a little girl who didn’t know anyone?
As they shouldered their way through the mob, Brenna offered the only support she could think of-reaching down and taking Adam’s hand. He stiffened for a second, and she wondered if he would pull away. But then he squeezed her fingers.
She pointed to the left. “The craft store that Geoff’s in front of is just-”
Given the high volume of ambient noise, it was amazing they even heard her, but Adam whipped around so quickly he almost took out a passing pedestrian. He scanned the crowd, relief instantly flooding his expression when he spotted his daughter a few yards away. He took off in her direction, Brenna hurrying to catch up, and dropped to his knees in front of her. Morgan looked scared, but not nearly to the degree her father had been. His entire body was shaking as he squashed her into his embrace.
“Morgan! Oh, thank God,” he chanted. “Thank God, thank God. You scared the he-Where
Her lower lip quivered, tears welling in her sky-blue eyes. “I…I don’t know. I just wanted to pet the little doggie, but then…” She began to wail.
Adam scooped her up in his arms, shushing her.
“Can you give me Geoff’s number? I’ll call him,” Brenna offered. She did so, moved by the naked relief in the teenager’s voice that his sister had been found. Next, Brenna called Maggie, knowing her stepmother must be frantic with concern and guilt.
“We found her,” Brenna said. “She wasn’t that far from where you guys were standing. I think she followed a puppy and got too turned around to find her way back.”
Adam had moved on from consoling to gently lecturing. His voice was kind but firm as he admonished Morgan to never, never, never, never do that again.
“Praise the lord,” Maggie said with feeling. “Eliza and I will meet you back there. I’ll call Fred now.”
Brenna could hear Eliza’s whoop of joy in the background as Maggie relayed the good news.
But joy was not the emotion plastered across the girl’s tearstained features when she stormed up to them a few minutes later. “Morgan Renee Varner, don’t you ever do that again!”
Morgan huddled shyly into her father’s side. “Sorry,” she mumbled.
“Eliza,” Adam said, “I know how upset you-”
Maggie flinched but didn’t interrupt.
“-so that you could make some kind of booty call or something-”
“That is enough,” Adam said, his voice soft but echoing with cold finality.
Eliza’s shoulders slumped as if from the weight of all the emotions she’d gone through today. She stopped raging, but wounded anger still shadowed her gaze. “She’s not even your girlfriend, Dad. But you broke your promise for her. What if something had happened to Morgan?”
Adam briefly squeezed his eyes closed, actually staggering back a step as his daughter’s words struck him like a boxer’s KO punch. Brenna was certain Eliza hadn’t said anything he wasn’t already thinking himself. More than she had ever before, Brenna wanted to reach out to another person. She wanted to hug him, soothe him with reminders that his daughter was all right now. But under the circumstances, her touching Adam right now might not be welcome.
A lump rose in Brenna’s throat when Geoff, somehow looking years older than when she’d last seen him, moved closer to his father, laying a hand on his arm. An unmistakable sign of solidarity and support.
“Morgan,” Geoff began kindly, “why don’t you tell everyone you’re sorry? Especially Maggie. She was nice enough to bring us to the festival, then you scared her to death.”
“D-didn’t m-mean to.” Morgan hiccupped. “P-please don’t f-fight.”
“Nobody’s fighting,” Adam promised her. He shot a pointed glance at his other daughter.
Eliza nodded.
Brenna took that as her cue. “I’m so glad everyone’s okay. Why don’t you stick together for the rest of the day? I want you guys to have fun with your dad today at the festival.” She retreated a step.
Adam raised his gaze to her, looking miserable but grateful. They both knew there was no way he could go back to helping her with pet assignments now, and she was officially behind schedule. The way things stood, it was better that she didn’t intrude by joining them for fireworks.
She turned to Maggie, who was wringing her hands. “Adam and I both appreciate your doing us the favor. I’m sure the kids were having a great time earlier. I’ll see you for Sunday dinner?”
